David May (born 24 June 1970) is an English football coach and former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

. As a player he was a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

and

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

from 1988 to 2006. May played

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

football for

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

and

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

where he collected numerous trophies in a nine-year spell at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wembl ...

. He went on to play in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

for Huddersfield Town and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Br ...

before finishing his career with non-League club Bacup Borough.

Playing career

Blackburn Rovers

May started his career with

as a trainee before graduating to the first team in the 1988–89 season, mostly playing as a

but sometimes playing at

.Former Blackburn Rovers defender: It's time for Venky's to splash the cash
''Lancashire Telegraph'', 20 June 2011 He made over 100 appearances for the club and was a regular player in the Blackburn team which was promoted to the new

in 1992David May – Superstar
Burnley FC, 17 November 2004 and finished as runners-up to

in the 1993–94 season, having finished fourth a year earlier. May retained his regular place in the Blackburn team after they reached the Premier League, despite the many millions that manager

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former football player and manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic and 515 for Liverpool, playing as a forward, and earned a record 102 full caps for th ...

spend on rebuilding the squad ready for a title challenge.Sport.co.uk meets...David May
Sport.co.uk, 5 August 2010

Manchester United

In July 1994, Manchester United bought May for £1.2 million, as he was apparently unhappy at Blackburn in his final months due to the breakdown in contract negotiations. Manchester United manager

Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time ...

had been searching for a defender to add to the squad, and specifically needed an Englishman who would not be affected by the restrictions on foreign players in European competition that were in place at the time. He was also thinking about the future, as centre-back and captain

Steve Bruce Stephen Roger Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back. He most recently managed West Bromwich Albion. Born in Corbridge, Northumberland, he was a promising scho ...

was in his 34th year and Gary Pallister was approaching 30.May's days
''When Saturday Comes'', October 2003 Injuries to first-choice right-back Paul Parker meant that May was often used as a right-back in his first season, and rarely played in his preferred centre-back position due to the strong partnership of Bruce and Pallister. As May underperformed, by the end of the season,

Gary Neville Gary Alexander Neville (born 18 February 1975) is an English football pundit and former player. He is also a co-owner of English Football League club Salford City. After retiring from football in 2011, Neville went into punditry and was a comm ...

had emerged to become the new first-choice right-back, while Parker was rarely used the following season and then left the club. Manchester United finished the season in second place in the Premier League, losing out to May's old club Blackburn Rovers. May finally managed to establish himself in the team towards the end of the 1995–96 season as an understudy for Bruce, who was struggling with a hamstring injury, and scored the first goal in the final match of the season against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the ...

. The 3–0 victory clinched the title for Manchester United. He was also in the starting line-up for the

1996 FA Cup Final The 1996 FA Cup Final was the 51st to be held at Wembley Stadium after the Second World War and was held between two of the biggest rivals in English football, Manchester United and Liverpool. Build-up A few days before the final, Manche ...

victory over

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, while Bruce was not even selected as a substitute.FA Cup flashback
BBC Sport, 16 February 2006 Bruce departed to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

soon after, and May became a regular starter in the 1996–97 season, making over 40 appearances and often being paired with Gary Pallister, although a third centre-back, new signing Ronny Johnsen, had been signed in the summer of 1996 and was a regular in the first team. His contributions were important as United retained the league title and also reached the semi-final of the Champions League after a 4–0 victory over

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...

in the quarter-final, in which May scored the first goal. His form meant that he received a late call-up to the England national team for a friendly against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

, but he never actually won an

international cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In th ...

. The purchases of

Henning Berg Henning Stille Berg (; born 1 September 1969) is a Norwegian football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Cypriot First Division club Pafos FC. His career lasted from 1988 to 2004, most notably in the Premier League where h ...

and

Jaap Stam Jakob Stam (; born 17 July 1972) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player. As a player, he played as a centre-back and is regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation. Stam played for several European clubs including ...

as well as the emergence of Wes Brown limited his chances further during the late 1990s and he saw very little action with the first team. However, towards the end of the treble-winning 1998–99 season, May enjoyed a brief comeback as Ferguson rotated his squad to cope with the mounting fixture congestion and United were challenging for the league title, FA Cup and European Cup. He was also named in the starting line-up for the 1999 FA Cup Final as Stam was being rested for the Champions League Final against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. May was named on the bench for that match, and is remembered for the way he led the celebrations after the match, despite not playing one single minute in the Champions League that season. A popular chant with the crowd was "''David May, superstar! Got more medals than Shearer!''" – in reference to the lack of success enjoyed by May's former Blackburn colleague

Alan Shearer Alan Shearer CBE DL (born 13 August 1970) is an English football pundit and retired football player and manager who played as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and one of the greatest players in Premi ...

, who was one of the finest strikers of his generation but won just one trophy in a career which lasted nearly 20 years at the highest level. The following season, May was loaned out to Huddersfield Town, where he played under Steve Bruce. In his first appearance for the Terriers, however, he picked up an injury and had to return for treatment to Old Trafford, where he remained for another three years, but often sidelined by injury and playing mainly in the reserve team. May's last four seasons with United saw him make only 12 appearances in total for the club. Due to his lack of appearances, May collected only two Premier League winner's medals, despite being a squad member for six winning campaigns. May's final competitive appearance for Manchester United came in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

on 3 December 2002 against Burnley.

Burnley

At the end of his contract with Manchester United in the summer of 2003, May was given a free transfer and snapped up by

manager

Stan Ternent Francis Stanley Ternent (born 16 June 1946) is an English former footballer and manager. He managed Blackpool, Hull City, Bury, Burnley, Gillingham and Huddersfield Town. He was a scout for Hull City until January 2017. As a manager, he won th ...

,Burnley capture defender May
BBC Sport, 13 August 2003 an old friend of Ferguson's, to bolster his leaky defence. In September 2003 he scored in a 2–1 win against

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

, while at the end of the month he was sent off against Wimbledon for two yellow cards. In December 2003, May was

headbutt A headbutt is a targeted strike with the head, typically (when intentional) involving the use of robust parts of the headbutter's cranium as the area of impact. The most effective headbutts strike the most sensitive areas of an opponent, such as ...

ed by Ternent following a disagreement at the club training ground. They later settled their differences. He played 39 times for Burnley during the 2003–04 season, and captained the team on a number of occasions.

Bacup Borough

May joined non-League club Bacup Borough in November 2004 where he finished his playing career.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player with Bacup Borough, May was appointed assistant manager at the club. In 2007, he moved to

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...

to coach football at a school.

Personal life

May was born in

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, w ...

, Lancashire. Since retiring May has become a wine importer.Man City and Man United will 'dominate football' says David May
BBC Sport, 10 May 2012 He is still a keen supporter of former club Manchester United, although he grew up supporting

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. As of 2007, he was a regular presenter of Thursday Focus on MUTV, his old club's TV station. May is also co-host of the Official Manchester United Podcast.

Honours

Blackburn Rovers *

Football League Second Division play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise t ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

Manchester United *

: 1995–96, 1996–97 *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

: 1995–96, 1998–99 *

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier L ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

: 1998–99

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:May, David 1970 births Living people Footballers from Oldham English footballers Association football defenders Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Manchester United F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Bacup Borough F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players UEFA Champions League winning players Association football coaches FA Cup Final players